Bali/production
Season 17 was officially announced after the Congo reunion. Sandy and Tucker confirmed their return to the series alongside runner-up Kirin who initially presented iSurv1vor: Live!, but later hosting events for the season. Britti did not return to host. Quanz from and Kelman from were shortlisted to compete for this season but were cut at the last minute. Quanz later appeared on http://isurv1vor19.proboards.com/ and Kelman in http://isurv1vor20.proboards.com/ Redemption Island Although players have re-entered the game in previous seasons (iSurv1vor: Cambodia & iSurv1vor: Hawaii) and stand alone Duels have been implemented as one-time twists (iSurv1vor: Heroes vs. Villains & iSurv1vor: Faroe Islands) The 17th season of iSurv1vor emulates Redemption Island, introduced to the CBS edition of Survivor in 2011 with amended rules. At the start of the game, players are paired up by Production based on their applications/similarities and will become responsible for their partner as when a player is voted out, their partner will also be deemed "eliminated" and together will travel to Redemption Island. These two people will then face off in a Duel in a separate section of the forum (without either tribe attending) with the losing contestant leaving permanently whilst the winner rejoins their old tribe to continue their game, despite this, those who re-enter the game are not given a special "Immunity" to integrate back. When a person is voted out and they have visited Redemption Island previously, they leave the game permanently as they have no partner to Duel against, this twist remains in play until the merge where partners and Redemption Island are dissolved. Whilst at Redemption Island, those in the Duel are freely permitted to contact their former tribe mates but are forbidden to discuss the Duel. The Hosts of the series believed that with this twist, castaways would think differently about how they vote and make alliances. When a player has their partner in the game, the added security of somebody they could potentially defeat in a Duel would make them confident whilst a player returning from Redemption Island would work harder in challenges to avoid being eliminated permanently. Mariconda was the first person to be redeemed after defeating his partner Heather and Parq became the second person to be redeemed after defeating his partner Kleinzan. They were voted out immediately after their return. Partners On Day 1, both tribes were informed who they were partnered with alongside the standard contact information. This information was treated as public knowledge and were able to reveal who their partner was to the other tribe if they were questioned about it. Rule Breaking Prior to the results of Heather versus Mariconda's Duel on Day 4, Mariconda discussed the Duel to members of his (then former) tribe and asked them to not reveal this information to Production under the penalty of a disqualification. The Veterans opted to keep this information a secret to use for strategical leverage, after the elimination of Parq (which sent Kleinzan to Redemption Island) the transcripts were made available after Heather had been eliminated. Mariconda, Kleinzan and Parq were punished, with any and all future iS Points revoked until such point that the tribes merge. The other members of Negara were hit with a -5 point disadvantage each at the next Immunity Challenge which they would later lose regardless of the penalty. The Duel between Kleinzan & Parq was cut short almost immediately when Kleinzan once again failed to follow the instructions and was eliminated.